合作学习在初中英语课堂中的应用

论文总字数：27869字

摘 要

随着教育的发展以及新课改的推行，合作学习不断被推广并运用于英语课堂中，它对于强调学生的主体地位，培养学生合作精神起到了积极的作用。因此，在课堂中合理运用合作学习理论指导，对师生双方都至关重要。实际上，一节好的英语课不仅仅只是让学生掌握一些基础知识和基本技能，更重要的是培养学生形成合作意识来提高运用英语的能力。本文以初中英语教学实际出发，以合作学习相关理论为基础，论述了其内涵以及开展合作学习的基本原则，从而分析合作学习在英语听、说、读、写教学等方面的应用。

关键词：应用；合作学习；英语课堂

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Definition of cooperative learning 2

2.2 Theoretical basis of cooperative learning 2

2.3 Relevant research at home and abroad 4

3.Principles of Cooperative Learning 4

3.1 Principle of subjectivity 4

3.2 Principle of communication 5

3.3 Principle of integrity 5

3.4 Principle of openness 6

4. Application of Cooperative Learning 6

4.1 Application in listening 7

4.2 Application in speaking 8

4.3 Application in reading 8

4.4 Application in writing 9

5. Conclusion 9

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

We are now in a cooperative world. For one thing, countries are bound to consolidate their international status through cooperation and exchange, which brings them more opportunities too. For another thing, it is the cooperation of various connection that makes our whole society better. Interpersonal communication will inevitably leads to cooperation. Therefore, cooperative learning will also be a must in the development of teaching career. New curriculum reform emphasizes that teachers are expected to train students’ cooperation and independence. (Yuan Tao, Cui Hongxia, 2003)In a word, cooperative learning is a new teaching mode which can change students from passive learners to active learners and lay emphasis on students’ dominant role. It is of no match that students ought to fully participate in the class.

Due to the fact that teachers are still the center of class with some conventional teaching methods, leading to a phenomenon that students may get less from teachers’ more devotion. And also, students are always unwilling to learn and find something new well. In a bid to change this educational situation, cooperative learning is a must. It adapts to the requirements of the development of our contemporary society and stimulates students’ interest in learning English through changing the ways of teaching and learning. Having some great advantages in four basic skills’ lessons, it makes contributions to education career. Compared with the traditional teaching mode, these advantages determines the meaning of this topic and advocates our teacher to conduct cooperative learning in middle school class.

There are five chapters in this paper. The first chapter is the introduction. It mainly conveys the background and the definition of the cooperative learning, and also shows this paper’s main structure. The second chapter is the literature review. It illustrates the meaning of cooperative learning and some theories on it. It also concludes the related researches at home and abroad. The third chapter explains the principles of cooperative learning. The fourth chapter shows cooperative learning’s four main applying methods in English classes. The fifth chapter is conclusion. It is consisted of main ideas and reflection of this study.

2. Literature Review

2.1 The definition of cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is an innovative and effective system of teaching theory and strategy, which was advocated by an American scholar William Classer and thus arose in the early 1970s. And then, it developed in the mid-70s to mid-80s. “Cooperative learning is a promising way that makes individuals get together to polish the same goal ” (Johnson, Johnson amp; Holubec 15).That means students are expected to learn with each other in a group or a team. It is firmly acknowledged that only when students in a group work out the same thing with their group members can they achieve their learning goals in such a cooperative learning situation. As a result, in English class of middle school, students are likely to work and negotiate with partners of the same group. Cooperative learning is also a wonderfully new learning method. It is such a new learning method which aims to gather people together to finish the same goal. It is of great emphasis on students’ subjectivity. Different individual forms a group, learning together to make out a same task. There are divergent meanings of cooperative learning concluded by people. It is a process of learning with others instead of learning alone. As a result, it can be possible to achieve more amazing learning effect than using conventional learning ways.

2.2 Theoretical basis of cooperative learning

2.2.1 Social interdependence theory

Kafka is the founder of this theory and it originates in the early 1900s. He once said that groups are dynamic systems in which the members’ interdependence can be changed. Kaufka’s colleague Lewin, K elaborated on the above viewpoints, which are as follows. First, the interdependence between people in this small group is the core, leading the group to a “dynamic whole”. And this interdependence is usually created by common goals. For example, in the dynamic community, if the state of some people transfers, it will cause others of this group to transfer their states. Secondly, the inner situation of tension among people can stimulate the group to fight for the same wanted aim.( Johnson D.W, Johnson R.T.amp;Holubec E.J 5). In the Encyclopedia of International Education (1990), it can simply express the core of cooperative learning. It is the strength of mutual solidarity that makes different people own a shared aim. In a word, interdependence gives power to individuals. Therefore, if students take the essence of positive cooperation and interdependence in English class, they are bound to benefit a lot.

2.2.2 Motivation theory

The motivation theory is simply about the goal structure or reward of students’ activities. In the 1940s, Deutsch summarized the following goal structures: cooperative structure; competitive structure and individual structure. In cooperative structure, only when a whole team wins the success can its individuals win the same achievements. So, helping people in their group make whatever will lead to their success is a must for the sake of achieving their individual goal. What is more important is that it can encourage their members to try their best. (Slavin 63-67). A beneficial way of striving for motivation is to build a bond relationship in the group. And in turn stimulates motivation in every step. The formation of a close relationship among members is a significant symbol of motivation.

2.2.3 Social cohesiveness theory

There is another theory about cooperative learning called the social cohesiveness. As a saying goes, good company on the road is the shortest cut. Wang Tan (2005) thought the influence of cooperative learning on students’ academic performance is based on the social cohesiveness. Some scholars harbor the view that students care about their group and then they are willing to help others and cooperate with others in learning, the sign of which is to estimate the formation of a cooperative learning group as well as the group self-evaluation during and after activities. In such a condition, everyone has the opportunity to show their talents in the group task or learning, irrespective of their ability.

2.3 Relevant research at home and abroad

The essence of cooperative learning originates from thousands of years. In the west, in the first century A.D, Quintillion, an ancient Rome educator, said that students ought to take advantage of learning with each other. The great Czech educator Camenius said in his teaching theory that students can not only learn from teachers, but also they can be taught by other students’ learning and they can achieve well. (Wang 32)In the Book of Songs in China, bandit gentlemen are likely to negotiate and learn from others, which means to discuss with each other and make a progress together.(Li 2005) Educators make unremitting efforts to inherit and develop this great idea, and thus relevant theories are formed actively. While in the 1970s, cooperative learning started to become systematized. American scholars have made great contribution in the study of group cooperative learning. Dewey is the founder of Chicago Experiment School, and the school adapts group cooperative learning in its teaching process. It can be seen that the application of cooperative learning is getting more and more popular in some western countries. The main project “Research and Experiment of Cooperative Learning” in Shandong Province and “Preliminary Exploration of Cooperative Teaching Operations" in Jiangsu Province all show the development of cooperative learning in China. There is still not very easy for our country to perform perfectly.

3.Principles of Cooperative Learning

The new curriculum reform advocates the “people-oriented” concept of students, and the core refers to taking students as the fundamental starting point of educational activity, which means “all for the development of every student”. So attention should be paid when we conduct cooperative learning activity. And four main principles are as follows.

3.1 Principle of subjectivity

The new curriculum reform requires the implementation of quality-centered education, in which students are the main role and students should be regarded as developing people. The new curriculum standard highlights the students’ subjective role and lay emphasis on students’ independence when it comes to goal setting; teaching process; curriculum evaluation and the development of teaching resources. As a result, cooperative learning also have to focus on the development of students’ mental and physical health and attach great importance to the main role of students. The traditional view of learning that teachers are occupying a major role of the English class should be changed and then students’ main position of learning are going to be reflected. However, when it comes to cooperative learning, teachers are in duty to provide help and guidance for students as well as inspire students. Only when we do as above can students find the essence of problems and absorb all useful ideas. Students becomes the dominant part of learning, cooperating freely to find out new ideas from divergent aspects. In these series of processes, students can surely become the masters of the class and the learning. In addition, teachers have to figure out the relationship between students and teaching content is the main contradiction so that they can better implement the principle of subjectivity. Under this premise, students can be content to learn and regard study as a happiness, which in turn leads to a great result.

3.2 Principle of communication

Communication is indispensable in our daily life. Teaching is one type of mutual communication and knowledge interaction. As we can see from social independence theory, communication is a close bond among students. What’s more, communication is not only the guarantee for the completion of cooperative learning group tasks, but also the way to realize individual socialization. Based on the information passing from teachers to students or students to students, cooperative learning is such a promising teaching mode. In teaching activities, students actively devote themselves to the study of problem situations through communication with team members. On this basis, brainstorming can be carried out to achieve the best results in learning. Teachers are bound to be organizers, encouraging group members to join in activities actively. And also, teachers ought to participate in these activities with their students. Students may have something to say when they are given a specific communicative environment. At the same time, following the communicative principle is conducive to promoting students’ interest in English and increasing the sense of belonging of group members.

3.3 Principle of integrity

The integral principle requires students to be aware that their group is a whole. In this whole, people in the group cooperate with each other to win a same goal or task’s success. Firstly, the integrity of learning objectives is also the key. Individual learning goals of group members form a collective goal within a group, and common goals of each group form the common goal of the class, which is the embodiment of educational equality. Secondly, it should be a must that teachers’ feedback and evaluation of students are integral. The group performance of learning. are the basis of students’ personal reward and reflection .This evaluation mechanism is conducive to the formation of a new pattern of “inter-group cooperation, inter-group competition”. Finally, the group members themselves should be aware that they are in the overall environment, and that they are both honorable and harmful to other members. Therefore, the integral principle of cooperative learning is conducive to cultivating students’ sense of collective honor.

3.4 Principle of openness

On the view of students, it is known that students are independent. So their thoughts can not be transferred by teachers’ will. Therefore, the openness of classroom and cooperative learning process can give an example of the openness principle. Learning is no longer a self-isolated activity, which should not be confined to the classroom and bounded in the text books. When choosing teaching content, teachers should closely connect with students’ actual life and trigger students’ innovative thinking when they cooperate. In the process of cooperative learning, students are not only confined to group discussions, but also can explore problems through group experiments, surveys and other new forms. More importantly, the standards of creating a team can be open. Students can choose their team members in many ways, such as their same hobbies or their different personality. There are many organizational methods, such as strong-strong alliance, good-bad collocation, and assigning tasks to group members according to gender differences, so that the group can be more flexible and produce more bright spots.

4. Application of Cooperative Learning

4.1 Application in listening

Middle school students are required to learn and apply many different kinds of words and phrases according to the new curriculum standard. At the same time, vocabulary is one of the three elements of language, which shows that learning vocabulary is a necessity for the sake of learning English well. And also, listening is a very beneficial way to test the level of vocabulary in our English class of middle school. Practicing a large number of words or phrases in listening is a good way to increase vocabulary. However, under the influence of traditional learning methods, students are tired of mechanical word dictation, and even they lose confidence in learning English. Such a vicious circle leads to students’ poor listening. Therefore, the application of cooperative learning has done a lot to the practicing and developing of listening skills. In this learning mode, teachers can use groups to cooperate and compete. Students ought to be the pilot of the class, so paying attention to the principle of subjectivity is beyond dispute. After listening, the words can be cross-checked by each group, and the model can be selected according to the results of the group. In this process, students always show the subjectivity. There are always some students whose listening performance is not ideal in each group. Students can be motivated , and be given the chance to repeat their listening. They can be supervised and guided by their peers. Students with unsatisfactory grades can consult those with good grades in the same group, thus making progress with each other and jointly promoting group progress. In listening teaching, teachers should make full use of the advantages of group cooperation, and reasonably select listening materials close to students’ lives. At the same time, students are inclined to be arranged to work with their classmates of a same group, so as to predict the listening content, eliminate some difficulties in terms of vocabulary or content, and discuss and exchange their own experience or findings after listening. For example, when arranging the students to listen to the task “Let’s Celebrate”, teachers can arrange students to discuss their favorite festivals with the group members beforehand, so the distance between listening materials and students’ daily life is close. Then the group members can summarize conclusions which are made by them all. In this way, the members of the group have entered the state of hearing for the materials they know nothing about, which can improve the listening skills.

4.2 Application in speaking

In ordinary English classes, teachers always turn a blind eye to the training of students’ spoken English. It is difficult for students to show their level of oral proficiency on their own. Therefore, it is the cooperative learning that can polish students’ speaking skill through communication and cooperation with classmates of the group, which in turn states the principle of communication. Firstly, teachers should put forward learning tasks clearly, such as setting specific situations for group members to make up dialogues with each other. Teachers can choose some topics related to students’ daily life, such as ask for directions, go shopping, or introduce themselves. students can make a role-play. This can not only make students feel more relaxed, but also can improve their brains’ thinking ability.. Not only can they read, but also they can use English in daily communication. For some students who are afraid of speaking English and have poor oral ability, teachers and members of the group can give more encouragement and guidance so that everyone can learn English well through cooperation. So that the English class can be lively.

4.3 Application in reading

An significant key to learning English well is to be good at reading. However, there still exists the “teachers ask and students answer” problem. Teachers neglect to cultivate students’ reading ability. In this case, group cooperation in reading learning is necessary. And also, teachers are expected to make students know the integrity of the reading context. Teachers should select suitable reading materials for students, which are not too difficult and are close to life, so that students can better understand the problem. Reading can be divided into pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading, but there three processes form a whole reading activity. According to the different characteristics of these three processes, teachers can reasonably arrange students to cooperate in reading. For example, before reading, group members can cooperate to collect background information related to the reading materials, boldly predict the basic content of the materials, and thus make some preparation for the following reading materials. While reading, the members of the group circle the difficult words they encounter in reading and actively discuss with the students in the group. They can answer each other. Group cooperation can make up for the lack of knowledge and understanding of individuals, and the exchange of ideas among group members can improve students’ reading comprehension ability. After reading, the students can summarize the reading passages to improve their reading skills and abilities in their own team.

4.4 Application in writing

Cooperative learning is very important in writing. In the teaching of writing, teachers improve the academic performance of students’ learning writing by grouping them reasonably. When giving a piece of writing material, the members of the group can discuss with each other and combine other people’ s innovative ideas to improve their understanding of the writing material. Remember that the ideas are open and students’ thoughts are open too. Students can list composition outlines in groups, but writing must be done independently. They should write their own opinions in order to prevent the uniformity of writing. After the completion of the writing, group members can read each others’ passage, encourage members to exchange meaning and draw the essence of their writings. At the same time, the group members should point out the mistakes in other people’s compositions in time, and be able to avoid similar mistakes with themselves next time. Finally, try to let students summarize the essence and the dregs of group members’ composition, and promote each other. Therefore, cooperative learning writing is meaningful to make students’ writing ability better. It can not only contribute to their ability, but also increase the cohesion of the group.

5.Conclusion

Cooperation is indispensable in today’ s society. Cooperative learning has also become an optimal way on the basis of the new curriculum reform, giving the students the initiative to learn and changing the traditional class situation of teachers in the unified classroom. The teacher’s teaching process is better combined with the student’s learning process, which on one hand shapes the teaching profession, on the other hand leads to students’ interest in learning. In the process of cooperation, teachers create a democratic and open learning atmosphere for students, so that students can also learn what they can’t learn in the textbook while exchanging knowledge. In the middle school English class, it is a must to vigorously promote this new method. Students should become the center of the classroom and start to learn with the application of cooperation.

Teachers should pay attention to four principles when using cooperative learning in middle school classes. In principle of subjectivity, students must be the master of the class and learning. Also, they are bound to cooperate with others through due communication. In terms of integrity, students are likely to cooperate in a whole group. To sum up, keep open when students are in cooperative learning is very significant.

In addition, in the various classrooms of middle school , such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, cooperative learning has its advantages. In terms of listening, teachers can conduct listening contests in small groups, and students with excellent grades lead students with unsatisfactory results to learn listening skills and go to the group’s common victory. For example, in the "Welcome to the Unit" class, the teacher can use the student’ s actual life as an introduction and select the listening content associated with the textbook to be heard, so that the students can better understand the material. Therefore, cooperative learning can also be of no match in the listening class, and teachers should make rational use of it. In the speaking classroom, students are often too shy to speak English in face of the whole class. One is afraid that they will speak the wrong English, some grammar or word errors will cause other students to laugh at them. Second, students are lack of many chances to speak English. So cooperative learning can help them overcome these disadvantages and achieve academic performance. Middle school English classes are still limited in reading and writing exercises. Then cooperative learning can solve this problem well. Students can combine two or two to organize conversations, or role-playing, to improve the level of speaking for the topics given by the teacher. Cooperative learning is more effective in equipping students with reading skills. Writing is a difficult point for middle school students, it requires more guidance from teachers and help between classmates. Students need to work together to analyze the main task of writing class and then cooperate with others to make an outline of the target writing material. In middle school English classes, cooperative learning is of great benefit , so teachers and students must make good use of their advantages.

Works Cited

Johnson D.W. and R.T. Johnson, “Cooperation and Competition: Theory and Research” Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company ,1989.

Johnson D.W., R.T. Johnson and E.J. Holubec “Circles of learning: cooperation in the classroom” Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company 1993.

Slavin R.E. 1993 “Research on Cooperative Learning and Achievement. What We Know, What We Need To Know” Contemporary Educational Psychology, (1):63-67

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